#19 JMU women’s lacrosse upsets #9 Penn State, 11-10

Junior Stephanie Finley (Media, Pa./Sacred Heart) scored a game-high five goals, including the game winner with under a minute to play, to rally No. 19 JMU to an 11-10 upset of No. 9 Penn State, March 5. With their second straight come-from-behind victory over a top-10 foe, the Dukes improved to 4-1 on the year while the Nittany Lions fell to 2-3 this season.

With JMU trailing 10-9 with just under seven minutes to play, JMU’s defense clamped down to hold penn state scoreless the remainder of the way. Finley got her fourth goal of the game with 3:33 to play in the contest to tie the game at 10. Following changes of possession, the Dukes got the ball back and eventually earned a free position shot with under a minute to go. Finley took the free position shot, sliding it underneath PSU goaltender Cat Rainone for the lead with 46 seconds to play. From there,

Madison was able to get possession and run out the remainder of the clock.

penn state jumped out to an early 4-0 just over four minutes into the contest. However, Finley scored two straight goals and senior Julianne Giles added a third to cut the lead to 4-3 midway in the first half. The visitors got three more in the first half as compared to JMU’s two to take a 7-5 halftime advantage.

After an early exchange of goals to start the second half, the Dukes got three straight scores from Finley, sophomoreTaylor Gress (Westminster, Md./Manchester Valley) and junior Hannah Verschoore (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) to take its first lead of the match at 9-8 with 12:32 to play. penn state answered with two goals in 60 seconds to go back up 10-9 with 6:41 to play, setting up the late game dramatics for the JMU victory.

The game was fairly even overall, with penn state holding slight advantages in shots (23-22), draw controls (12-11) and ground balls (20-18). Madison did force 16 Nittany Lion turnovers as compared to 15 for the Dukes.

Gress finished with a pair of goals, while Finley and redshirt-junior Emily Rhoads (Alexandria, Va./St. Stephens & St. Agnes) each recorded two assists in the victory. Junior goalkeeper Schylar Healy (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) recorded eight saves in the match, including seven in the first half to keep JMU in the contest.

For Penn State, Jess Loizeaux, Kelly Lechner and Jenna Mosketti each had a pair of goals, with Mackenzie Cyr leading with two assists. Rainone had eight saves in the loss.

Madison returns to the field Sunday, March 9, traveling to Storrs, Conn., to take on the Connecticut Huskies. Game time is set for 1 p.m.